| ♪ hands tied ♪ |

| p i l o t |

Coreen Lemoine stumbled into the girls' locker rooms and shrieked once again upon seeing the clock, she was going to be late!

She ran towards the back of the room of identical metre-and-half white metal lockers and punched in her code upon reaching the one assigned to her.

The locker popped open and Coreen jumped into the difficult task of undressing and dressing at the same time. She took off her uniform and fumbled with her white tights and navy blue leotard and started tying her pointe shoes while simultaneously running to the ballet studio C7.

Coreen shuffled into the studio and groaned upon seeing that she had arrived 30 minutes early instead of late, the teacher wasn't even here yet!

She sat on the polished wood floor of the spacious studio and tied her pointe shoes properly before starting her warm-up stretches.

Upon finishing with these, Coreen hooked her phone to the studio's speakers and spent a whole 4 minutes deciding which song to play. When she finally did, she stood in the middle of the spacious, light-filled and soundproof room and stepped into a second arabesque position.

The music filled the empty room and Coreen started to move. She started with small passe tilts and built up the petit allegros before she started to leap and twirl through the air. She relished in her grand jetes and lived for her pirouettes.

The music played on and Coreen smiled as her heartbeat harmonized the song's beat and she continued gliding and sailing the air.

Coreen felt inspiration flood her heart and danced on, indulging her desires for more.

Or at least that's how she felt until Madame Larue entered the room and turned off the music. Surprised, Coreen lost her focus and stumbled into the hardwood floor.

Madame Larue, a brown-haired woman with several grey streaks and a severe demeanour, approached her student sprawled on the floor, gave her a cold stare and handed her her smartphone.

"Mademoiselle Lemoine, I greatly advise that you save improvisations for your free time and instead concentrate on class. After all, not everyone gets accepted into The Académie des Beaux-Arts de Sertello."

After reprimanding the ginger, Madame Larue buttoned up her ruffled black suit jacket and walked towards the speakers, setting up the piece to which the rest of the class would warm up.

Coreen sighed and stood up, wondering how on Earth had luck had been on her side that dreadful day and got her enrolled in one of the best academies for ballet in the world. No, the best academy.

She walked over to the barre and kept her mouth shut as she joined her class.

/

Coreen Lemoine exhaled in desperation as students continued bumping into her and attempted to trip her on her way to one of the two storage facilities on Sertello's grounds.

Her year-mates thoroughly enjoyed being pests in her life and continuously pestered her about her home life.

She speed walked out of the ballet building and continued on her way to storehouse with the stash of pointe shoes. Madame Larue had reprimanded her again during class, though this time she claimed that she needed new shoes.

And so, Coreen sat once again in her regular uniform- white shirt, navy blue suit jacket and gold and navy blue plaid skirt- while one of the pointe shoe makers fitted the new shoes to her exact measures.

Because of Sertello's worldwide fame as the greatest of fine arts schools and the massive price of the semester along with the difficulty in acceptances, the school insisted on having the students wear custom-made pointe shoes.